Senator John Fetterman is among Democratic lawmakers who have reacted angrily to the multi-billion-dollar sale of U.S. Steel, which is headquartered in President Joe Biden's birth state of Pennsylvania.
The plan by Japan's Nippon Steel to acquire U.S. Steel for $14.9 billion has caused an uproar in Congress and from the United Steelworkers union (USW), concerned at the impact of a sale to a foreign buyer of the Pittsburgh steel producer that was once the world's largest company and played a key role in American industrialization.
The USW said it was not informed of the deal which is in violation of a partnership agreement with U.S. Steel that it be informed of a change in control or business conditions.
Amid concerns the deal could shift steelworking jobs to low-wage states, threaten national security and undermine U.S. industry, it poses a problem for Biden who has presented himself as a pro-union president, joining the picket line of striking United Auto Workers union members in Detroit, Michigan in September.
The price is nearly 40 percent above U.S. Steel's closing stock price on December 15 and 57 percent more than a rival offer made by iron and steel company Cleveland-Cliffs last August.
The Wall Street Journal said that Nippon "is actually making a bet that the American manufacturing renaissance will succeed, with steel demand heading structurally higher," although it predicted that politicians would be "taking potshots."
Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat, was among them, posting on a video on X (ex-Twitter) next to U.S. Steel's plant in the town of Braddock, Pennsylvania where he described it as "absolutely outrageous" that the firm has agreed the sale "to a foreign company."
"This is yet another example of hard-working Americans being blindsided by greedy corporations willing to sell out their communities to serve their shareholders," he said in the message.
He has joined a bipartisan group of politicians in calling for a review into the proposed acquisition, which includes fellow Pennsylvania Democratic Senator Bob Casey as well as Republican Senators J.D. Vance of Ohio, Josh Hawley of Missouri, and Marco Rubio of Florida.
Meanwhile, Ohio Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown called the move a "back-room acquisition" that was a "slap in the face to union workers and has signed a letter in which he has called for the Biden administration to conduct a comprehensive review of the deal and its impact.
In a letter to Biden on Wednesday, he called on the administration to "utilize the authorities available to you" to look at the impact the purchase would have on "the workforce, for the security of our supply chain and industrial base, for our national security and for our capacity to export American steel."
Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, told The Hill there was something "fundamentally troubling" about the merger and that he's been concerned for years about U.S. Steel's production cuts. "We've been troubled by their announcements over the past several years of reducing production," he said.
Republican senators wrote to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to argue the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) should block the sale.
On Thursday, Biden's National Economic Adviser Lael Brainard said that the deal "appears to deserve serious scrutiny in terms of its potential impact on national security and supply chain reliability."
Brainard said that the deal would be probed by the interagency committee on foreign investment and that the Biden administration "will be ready to look carefully at the findings of any such investigation and to act if appropriate."
Newsweek has contacted the White House for comment.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Brendan Cole is a Newsweek Senior News Reporter based in London, UK. His focus is Russia and Ukraine, in particular ... Read more
